3.2 Agent Architecture

As the agent architecture described by Orkin and shown in figure 3 is flexible enough to incorporate almost any type of AI system and is known to work with an existing planner, it was decided to model the agent’s architecture for this project on this architecture, with a few changes. There are five major components of this project’s agent architecture which are the working memory, the blackboard, the subsystem managers, the AI module and the squad manager. The subsystem managers include the target manager, the weapons manager, the navigation manager and finally the sensory manager. The animation manager, which is part of the F.E.A.R. architecture, is left out for this project. The AI module contains references to all the various managers and is charged with setting them up and updating them regularly. The AI module can be either the FSM or GOAP system depending on the AI system chosen. Figure 4 illustrates the flow of information through the architecture for every update and which components communicate with the others.